i would say play out the season and im sure we would be around 30 to 35 wins at the end of the season. not too bad and not too good. now, you ll have plenty of mediocre talent to play with... keep JV ED and TR and trade as many pieces as possible for 2014 draft picks.. that includes KL, DD, AB(if hes not traded by then). atleast get 1 lottery pick and some first rounders in return. Tank the season the 2014 season.. like real talk TANK!!! just BOMB the season bobcats style. now you are guaranteed for Wiggins or Jabari. and the possibilities of winning the lottery with the lottery picks we have in hand will be higher. say we have 7th worst teams pick and our own pick. thats like about 25% + 8% = 33%; in other words 1 in 3 chances.

We should just play for the win. I'm not against tanking but we don't need more potential players. We are young enough now. And with the draft, nothing is certain. Even with the worst record, you can drop down to fourth. And even if we get the #1 pick, we can still end up with a Greg Oden, Kwame Brown and our very own Enigmatic Primo Pasta. What's important is that the team should figure out how to play as a team, be better on D, trade Bargnani, and make smart offseason moves.

We should just play for the win. I'm not against tanking but we don't need more potential players. We are young enough now. And with the draft, nothing is certain. Even with the worst record, you can drop down to fourth. And even if we get the #1 pick, we can still end up with a Greg Oden, Kwame Brown and our very own Enigmatic Primo Pasta. What's important is that the team should figure out how to play as a team, be better on D, trade Bargnani, and make smart offseason moves.

clearly you hvaent seen Wiggins,
let me help you out- imagine Kevin Durant's game with Vince like body and hops.

clearly you hvaent seen Wiggins,
let me help you out- imagine Kevin Durant's game with Vince like body and hops.

I've seen highlights of his games but he hasn't even picked a college yet! What does making the playoffs have anything to do with him? Even if Wiggins bribes Stern, suddenly declare for the draft, and we get to draft him, godforbid for the sake of the nba, he might get into a car accident and lose a foot.

My point being, nothing is for certain, let's just take the season one game at a time, try our luck, and see what happens. Hopefully Casey can figure out a way for the team to play hard on the D consistently, and BC to figure out how to solve the personnel issues (what to do with Bargs, Jose's expiring contract, wing players, etc etc).

Do I want the Raptors to finish bottom 3? No. That would be painful and guarantees nothing but a lost season.

Do I want the obligations to OKC removed from the Raptors debt owed? Yup.

Do I want the Raptors to build upon the progress of last season? Abso-f'in-lutely.

Do I want the Raptors to develop and play the current young talent of ED, DD, TR, JV? You know it.

Do I want the Raptors to use Calderon/Bargnani/Kleiza/Amir to obtain as many picks as possible? Yes.

Do I think those players will those players return picks on their own? Helllll no. Not a chance.

Do I think the Raptors should volunteer to take on the worst of the worst contracts in the league in exchange for draft picks? Yes. I would not think twice.

Do I think those worst contracts will hinder the Raptors? No. Those contracts aren't playing anyways, remember? Develop the youth. Eventually those big contracts are going to be expiring right around the time the stockpile of draft picks is rounding out the roster.

Do I think this approach is risky? Yes but with current trade assets and history in free agency, the draft is the best way to get talent on the roster to become stars or trade for stars in combination with the horrible contracts that will eventually be expiring contracts.

Do I think the Raptors will get Wiggins? I don't know. Right now they have as good as a shot as anyone else.

play for wins this year do whatever it takes trade any current player for #1 overall in 2014.

As hard as 2 more mediocre to crap seasons will be, getting one of the top 3 picks in 014 should net us a true game changer and in this league you need one or best you can hope for is one-n-dones or late lotto picks. Fact, not fiction.

Do I want the Raptors to finish bottom 3? No. That would be painful and guarantees nothing but a lost season.

Do I want the obligations to OKC removed from the Raptors debt owed? Yup.

Do I want the Raptors to build upon the progress of last season? Abso-f'in-lutely.

Do I want the Raptors to develop and play the current young talent of ED, DD, TR, JV? You know it.

Do I want the Raptors to use Calderon/Bargnani/Kleiza/Amir to obtain as many picks as possible? Yes.

Do I think those players will those players return picks on their own? Helllll no. Not a chance.

Do I think the Raptors should volunteer to take on the worst of the worst contracts in the league in exchange for draft picks? Yes. I would not think twice.

Do I think those worst contracts will hinder the Raptors? No. Those contracts aren't playing anyways, remember? Develop the youth. Eventually those big contracts are going to be expiring right around the time the stockpile of draft picks is rounding out the roster.

Do I think this approach is risky? Yes but with current trade assets and history in free agency, the draft is the best way to get talent on the roster to become stars or trade for stars in combination with the horrible contracts that will eventually be expiring contracts.

Do I think the Raptors will get Wiggins? I don't know. Right now they have as good as a shot as anyone else.

Do I think everything is about Wiggins? No.

Do I think everything should be about Wiggins? No.

Agree 100%

minks77 wrote:

play for wins this year do whatever it takes trade any current player for #1 overall in 2014.

As hard as 2 more mediocre to crap seasons will be, getting one of the top 3 picks in 014 should net us a true game changer and in this league you need one or best you can hope for is one-n-dones or late lotto picks. Fact, not fiction.

The Raps have nothing that will ensure a trade for the #1 draft in 2014, but Matt's suggestion to do everything to trade for picks in 2014 will give them the flexibility to work a deal that just might land them a couple (or 3?) high lottery picks.

I think the goal this year is to win as many games as possible. It's not a great draft year and we already have a good bunch of young talent we need to develop, maybe not future superstars but some decent players who need to learn how to win together. I think a 9th or 10th place finish would be good for this team, they get to compete for the last payoff spot and we get our pick next year. Every team needs to eventually turn that corner and start actually trying to win games instead of tanking every season and I think this is the year the Raptors start working toward winning.

"When Life gives you lemons, you clone those Lemons to make super lemons!"
-Scudworth

The more I think about it, the more I think we should keep Kleiza. It'll at least keep Colangelo happy. Kleiza is basically a shorter version of Bargnani, only he's much cheaper and does pretty much everything better.

I think the goal this year is to win as many games as possible. It's not a great draft year and we already have a good bunch of young talent we need to develop, maybe not future superstars but some decent players who need to learn how to win together. I think a 9th or 10th place finish would be good for this team, they get to compete for the last payoff spot and we get our pick next year. Every team needs to eventually turn that corner and start actually trying to win games instead of tanking every season and I think this is the year the Raptors start working toward winning.

So compete this year? Tank next year? What can of message does that send to the players?

Develop & keep Terrence Ross, Demar Derozan, Ed Davis, Jonas Valanciunas, and Kyle Lowry. Develop these guys, play them in the situations for them to learn and experience, and give them the playing time to be successful. Let these guys play together, and develop a chemistry, buy into the system (defensive system that is) of Dwane Casey, and make these guys the core pieces of our future. This list may include a potential star (Derozan, Valanciunas, Lowry), but whether the core contains a star, or not, these guys become untouchable to the sense, your building people around THEM, not building them around people/player.

Use Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani, Amir Johnson, Linas Kleiza as trade-able assets or trade bait. A lot of possible money going out, but these are very capable players on wanting teams, with Jose's expiring contract as well, teams will acquire a 10$ million cap relief at the end of the season, allowing them to go into the off-season with open space for the 3 options (trade, free agency, draft).

Win Games. #1 option is to win games. Bring back the defensive culture, and play the slow, grind it out offense. Run only on OPPORTUNITIES. Losing games is a lost season, the better you try to get, and improve over the season, usually brings momentum and a better team the next season. No doubt whoever the GM will be by the end of the season, moves will be made to better the guys. Ross, JV, Ed, Derozan, Lowry, Fields, Anderson, Acy, Gray, Lucas are guys I expect to be back next season. Bring back the 'winning-type' culture we had last season, and allow the players to work within' it. We've been successful doing it. Run & gun teams haven't been successful in the last couple years, why fix something that's not broken? (Well, actually our team's offense has been pretty broken, until we started playing slower.)

Just a couple things I personally would do, but not to fond of using Jose as trade bait because first, he's a very, very good player. Key player when Lowry goes down. Also, we could use that expiring 10$ million at the end of the season being our financial flexibility was hampered a little bit with the Derozan signing. (Proving many wrong right now though.) I would only trade Calderon for the RIGHT deal.

Also, I hope Pietrus stays. BUT, one year deal, likely to test free agency, and not part of our future, nor is he a trade-able asset.